Tools / Strike

Strike

Tools that deliver a blow: hammers, mallets and sledges, and the punches, sets and cold chisels that carry a hammer blow to a point or an edge.

6 tools written

• Ball-peen hammerA metalworker’s hammer with a round, slightly crowned face on one end and a rounded, ball-shaped peen on the other, used to strike punches and chisels, to set rivets and to shape and straighten unhardened metal.
• Claw hammerA hammer with a striking face at one end of the head and a split, curved claw at the other, used to drive nails and to draw them out by leverage. It is the general carpenter’s hammer.
• Dead blow hammerA hammer whose head contains a cavity of loose shot or pellets, so that the head stays on the work after the blow instead of rebounding. Soft-faced versions strike without marring.
• Framing hammerA claw hammer with a heavier head, a longer handle, a milled face and usually a straight claw, made for driving large nails in structural carpentry. It is a recent specialization of the general carpenter’s hammer.
• MalletA hammer with a large head of wood, rawhide, lead or rubber, used to strike chisels and wooden parts and to move metal work without marring it. It is the oldest striking tool in this archive for which dated examples survive.
• SledgehammerA heavy hammer with a long handle, swung with both hands, used to drive stakes and wedges, to strike other tools and to break masonry. The word is among the oldest English names for a hammer.